ارتباط بین زورگویی، مزاحمت سایبری و خودکشی در دانش آموزان دبیرستانی

This study examined associations among depression, suicidal behaviors, and bullying and victimization experiences in 1491 high school students using data from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results demonstrated that depression mediated the association between bullying/victimization and suicide attempts, but differently for males and females. Specifically, depression mediated the link between traditional victimization and suicide attempts similarly across gender, whereas depression mediated the link between cyber victimization and suicide attempts only for females. Similarly, depression mediated the link between traditional bullying and suicide attempts for females only. Depression did not mediate the link between cyberbullying and suicide attempts for either gender. Implications of the findings are discussed, including the importance of greater detection of depression among students involved in bullying, and the need for a suicide prevention and intervention component in anti-bullying programs. Findings suggest that bullying prevention efforts be extended from middle school students to include high school students.

Results Demographic differences Gender To examine gender differences in the dichotomous variables, chi-squared analyses were conducted. There was a significant association between gender and depression during the past year (χ2 (df = 1) = 24.23, p = .0005), with females 1.73 times more likely to indicate they had been depressed than males. Similarly, there was a significant association between gender and considering suicide (χ2 (df = 1) = 15.85, p = .0005), with females 1.73 times more likely to say they had considered suicide, 1.63 times more likely to report they had a suicide plan (χ2 (df = 1) = 9.21, p = .002) and 1.47 times more likely to report at least one suicide attempt (χ2 (df = 1) = 4.40, p = .04). Although no gender difference was detected on being victimized electronically at least weekly, a significant difference was found for cyberbullying (χ2 (df = 1) = 11.22, p = .001), with males more than three times more likely to cyberbully others. Likewise, for traditional bullying/victimization, no difference was found for victimization, but males were 2.46 times more likely to bully others (χ2 (df = 1) = 11.77, p = .001). Table 2 shows percentages of depression and suicidal behaviors by gender. Table 2. Percentages of depression and suicidal behaviors in the sample by gender. Survey item Male Female Total Depressed in previous year 29 41 35 Considered suicide 13 21 17 Made a suicide plan 9 14 12 Attempted suicide at least once 9 11 10 Table options Grade level There were no significant differences by grade for depression, considering suicide, or making a suicide plan. For attempting suicide, ninth graders were more likely to report at least one attempt than students in other grades (χ2 (df = 3) = 7.92, p = .05) although Cramer's v = .08 indicated a weak relationship. On electronic victimization, students in 12th grade were most likely to report being victimized (χ2 (df = 3) = 11.503, p = .009, Cramer's v = .09), and cyberbullying others (χ2 (df = 3) = 9.13, p = .03, Cramer's v = .08). No grade differences were found for traditional bullying or victimization. Bullying status For traditional bullying, males were more likely to be classified as traditional bullies and bully–victims (χ2 (df = 3) = 10.65, p = .01, Cramer's v = .09) and cyberbully/victims (χ2 (df = 3) = 1113.92, p = .003, Cramer's v = .10). For the status groups, there was a moderate relationship where males were over-represented in the groups of cyberbully–victims and dual bully–victims (χ2 (df = 3) = 28.34, p = .001, Cramer's v = .15). No significant difference was found for traditional bullying status by grade. For cyberbullying status, 12th grade students were more likely to be cyberbully/victims (χ2 (df = 9) = 21.48, p = .01, Cramer's v = .07) and were more likely to be dual bully–victims than students in other grades (χ2 (df = 27) = 50.10, p = .004, Cramer's v = .11), also a moderate relationship. Race/ethnicity Analyses by race/ethnic category were conducted with the four groups that were large enough for analysis: American Indian, Black/African American, White, Hispanic or Mixed Hispanic (Bi-ethnic with Hispanic as one of the groups). These groups were statistically different on reported depression, (χ2 (df = 3) = 12.54, p = .006, Cramer's v = .10), with Hispanics being most likely to report depression. No difference was found by race/ethnicity on the suicide variables. There was no difference by race/ethnicity for traditional victimization, while the Hispanic group was least likely to report bullying others (χ2 (df = 3) = 8.98, p = .003, Cramer's v = .08). No differences were found for electronic bullying or victimization. Correlations To examine relationships among the independent variables, Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. Because the sample size was large, all coefficients were statistically significant, but most were small in magnitude. The strongest relationship was between being depressed in the last year and considering suicide (r = .403). Among the bullying variables, being victimized by cyberbullying and cyberbullying others (r = .548) had the strongest relationship; traditional bullying and victimization were moderately correlated (r = .348). The relationships among the suicide variables and the bullying/victimization variables were not particularly strong (r's ranged from .15 to .26). Mediation analyses Our theoretical framework suggested that depression could be a mediator in the relation between bullying and victimization and suicide attempts. Thus, we examined whether depression mediated the association between traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization and suicidal behavior in a SEM. Importantly, traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization were entered simultaneously into the path model to examine their unique associations with depression and suicide attempts. Further, given the gender differences documented in the descriptive analyses, we compared the indirect paths by gender using the Wald test because the bootstrapping method does not provide a chi-square statistic that would allow for a more formal multiple-group test of gender moderation. The final path model is shown in Fig. 1. Findings by form of victimization and bullying are discussed separately below; in addition, depression significantly predicted suicide attempts for females (β = .53, p < .001) and males (β = .47, p < .001). Wald's test of significance suggested that this association was equal across gender (χ2 (df = 1) = .50, p = .48). Full-size image (29 K) Fig. 1. Final path estimates for males and females. Note. Standardized coefficients are shown. F = females, M = males. Covariation among the predictors was modeled but is not shown here for brevity. Dashed lines represent non-significant pathways and solid lines represent significant pathways. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001. Figure options Traditional victimization This was a significant predictor of depression for both females and males (Females: β = .13, p < .01; Males: β = .20, p < .001). Wald's test confirmed that this association could be constrained across gender (χ2 (df = 1) = .73, p = .39). Of note, even after accounting for depression, there was still a small direct significant association between traditional victimization and suicide attempts for females (β = .10, p < .05), but not for males (β = .06, p > .05). However, the Wald's test suggested that these parameters were not significantly different from one another (χ2 (df = 1) = .55, p = .46). Finally, the indirect effect was significant for females (aβ = .11, 95% C.I. = .04–.21) and males (aβ = .13, 95% C.I. = .06–.21), with the proportion of variance (as calculated by the formula aβ/c) in suicide attempts mediated by depression equal to 42.32% for females and 60.28% for males. Of note, the indirect path did not differ by gender: χ2 (df = 1) = .11, p = .74. Traditional bullying This was a significant predictor of depression for females (β = .11, p < .05), but not for males (β = .01, p = .95; Wald's statistic: χ2 (df = 1) = 4.40, p < .05). Further, the direct association between traditional bullying, and suicide attempt was not significant for females or males after accounting for depression. Finally, the indirect effect was significant for females (aβ = .10, 95% C.I. = .02–.20), but not for males (aβ = .00, 95% C.I. = −.05–.06). Further, Wald's statistic confirmed that the indirect effect was significantly different across gender (χ2 (df = 1) = 4.44, p < .05). The proportion of variance in suicide attempts mediated by depression was equal to 21.63% for females. Cyber victimization This was a significant predictor of depression for females (β = .24, p < .001), but not for males (β = .10, p = .10; Wald's statistic: χ2 (df = 1) = 6.76, p < .01). Further, the direct association between cyber victimization and suicide attempt was not significant for females or males after accounting for depression. Finally, the indirect effect was significant only for females (aβ = .23, 95% C.I. = .13–.33), but not males (aβ = .07, 95% C.I. = .00–.17). A Wald's test confirmed that these indirect effects were significantly different across gender (Wald's statistic: χ2 (df = 1) = 6.64, p < .01). The proportion of variance in suicide attempts mediated by depression was equal to 74.43% for females. Cyberbullying This was not a significant predictor of depression for either females or males (Wald's statistic: χ2 (df = 1) = .50, p = .48). After accounting for depression, there was a direct significant association between cyberbullying and suicide attempts, but only for males (β = .14, p < .05); however, a Wald's test suggested that males and females did not differ on this association (χ2 (df = 1) = 1.18, p = .28) The indirect effects were not significant for either females (aβ = −.18, 95% C.I. = −.13–.11) or males (aβ = .00, 95% C.I. = −.09–.08); further, a Wald's test confirmed that these parameters did not differ by gender (χ2 (df = 1) = .07, p = .80). Summary To summarize, depression significantly mediated the relation between traditional bullying and suicide attempts for both females and males, with depression accounting for 42–60% of variance in suicide attempts, respectively. Further, depression significantly mediated the relation between traditional bullying and cyber victimization and suicide attempts for females only, with depression accounting for 21.63% of the variance in suicide attempts for traditional bullying and 74.43% for cyber victimization. Finally, depression did not mediate the association between cyberbullying and suicide attempts for males or females.